A State Emergency Service deputy commissioner turned whistleblower made "denigrating" comments about a senior officer, including that of corrupt behaviour, to junior staff before she was sacked, a court has heard.

The SES' first female deputy commissioner, Tara McCarthy, was dismissed from the organisation in 2013 after making allegations about misconduct in the ranks.

Former SES head Murray Kear arrives at Sydney Central Local Court on Monday. Photo: James Alcock

Her boss, SES commissioner Murray Kear, resigned in 2014 after the Independent Commission Against Corruption found he had sacked Ms McCarthy as a reprisal for making misconduct allegations against his "mate" Steve Pearce, who was also a deputy commissioner.

Ms McCarthy's allegations included the misuse of a corporate credit card to pay for personal expenses, such as electric brakes for towing a camper trailer and roof racks for surfboards.

The Public Interest Disclosures Act makes it an offence for a public official to take "detrimental action against a person ... substantially in reprisal" for whistleblowing.

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Mr Kear, who faces a maximum two-year jail term, denies the allegation and faced a hearing in Sydney's Central Local Court on Monday.

The court heard that the environment of "getting on with the job" between the two SES deputy commissioners changed when Ms McCarthy came on board in late 2012.

"It was difficult for a new person to come into the organisation and find their way, we expected that would happen," Mark Morrow, the SES deputy commissioner, told the court.

"But after a while it became obvious to me there was a lot of friction between Tara [McCarthy] and Steve [Pearce]. But she also showed a lot of animosity to the other directors."

The court heard that four SES staff, who were junior to Ms McCarthy, spoke to Mr Morrow about comments she had made that were "denigrating" to other officers.

One conversation between Ms McCarthy and a junior officer occurred on the weekend before she was dismissed when the pair drove down to the Far South Coast.

Mr Morrow said the junior officer rang him to discuss some concerns he had about comments Ms McCarthy had made.

"Of the four officers, [he] was the most affected, almost emotionally affected by that," he told the court.

On a separate occasion, another officer told Mr Morrow that Ms McCarthy had made claims about Mr Pearce's behaviour, including that it had been corrupt.

Mr Morrow said it was his view that if Ms McCarthy had an issue with Mr Pearce or Mr Kear, she should have spoken to them about it.

He was happy for Ms McCarthy to talk about SES business but he wasn't happy for "her to discuss these [related to Mr Kear and Mr Pearce] issues with junior staff".

Mr Morrow, who applied for the same deputy commissioner role that Ms McCarthy was awarded in 2012, said in the scheme of what they were trying to achieve as an executive team, "I thought it was entirely inappropriate".

The court heard that another SES officer told Mr Morrow that Ms McCarthy spoke of not being happy having to clean up other people's messes, not having the job she applied for and Mr Pearce's ability to do his job.

All of these incidents were eventually relayed to Mr Kear, the court heard.

Asked about the seriousness of denigrating senior officers, Mr Morrow replied: "Absolutely, the team had become dysfunctional".

The court also heard claims of Ms McCarthy not performing her duties and unwillingness to accept advice.

Mr Morrow said Ms McCarthy was also the sponsor of a fleet vehicle project that ended up with 60 utes sitting uncovered on a dock at Port Kembla in 2012-13.

Mr Morrow claimed Ms McCarthy was being less than truthful about the health of the project.

There wasn't a plan for what was going to happen with the vehicles, worth between $40,000 and $50,000, and they were sitting uncovered on a dock, he said.

Mr Morrow also said Ms McCarthy was "pissed" about not getting the deputy commissioner of operations role she had applied for.

Instead Ms McCarthy was in charge of corporate responsibilities.

"On more than one occasion she said to me 'this is not the job I applied for'," Mr Morrow told the court.